Mbulu

British Commonwealth Postmarks

Attached are lists of villages and other offices where you may find a circular date stamp. Well, most are circular and almost all are dated. The lists are loosely arranged as follows:

Name as it appears in an early cancel or in the majority of cancels. Many town names, especially in Africa and Asia, have a number of spellings in English. These are ignored. But, if the town name changed significantly, the newer name is in parentheses. Names often changed because of confusing same or similar names in the same colony.

Also, independence led to de-Anglicization, especially if the town name included words such as "fort". If the town is a post office outside of the colony but administered by the colony, that is indicated.

Next is the earliest date "known" of a dated cancel or, sometimes the date of opening. If not from literature, then from my collection. Sadly, most early dates from my collection are not that early.

Then there are letter or numeral killers used alone or in conjunction with a date stamp. Sometimes several different numbers were used, perhaps in different styles. This is a huge field, only touched on here.

Lastly, the location of the village is given (or will later be given) by latitude and longitude. Sometimes this is only approximate, variables including inaccurate old maps, inaccurate new maps, moving of towns, confusion over similar town names, quirky software and my own clerical errors.

The lists are a place to get started. They are incomplete, the degree depending on what literature is available to the author. Focus is on villages with post offices around the turn of the century without attempting to include newer offices. The cut-off date for each colony varies, depending on manageability of the number of offices.

Many of the village marks are rare. Occasionally, only a single example is known. Some offices were open only a few months and have disappeared from modern maps.

Other Urban Development

Paper III. Urban Development & the Growth of Communications

Arusha is the only large scale urban development in the region. Mbulu was established as a German administrative centre, and became the British headquarters for the Mbulu District. Oldeani developed as a trading centre when the German settlement started there in the late 1920's. Babati served that section of the Mbulu District which lay below the Rift (now the Hanang District). There were a few European settlers in the vicinity but the few shops were dependant on the local African producer, as well as serving the passing traffic on the "Great North Road".

The site of Monduli was a farm alienated in German times, and acquired by the Government when a headquarters was being sought for the newly established Masai District in 1929.

A more recent development is the Tengeru complex, which started as a Polish Refugee Camp established on a German Farm to house 6000 refugees which the Tanganyika Government agreed to accept in 1942. After the departure of the refugees, the Government used the site to develop an Agricultural Research Station with a Soil Conservation Service. The Game Department was also housed there. On the establishment of Arusha as the capital of the East African Community the buildings were handed over for community use and the agricultural work was abandoned. Adjacent to Tengeru a considerable rural service centre has grown up on a German Farm bought by the Government for Meru expansion. It now contains a teaching training college, an expanding health centre, and in the shopping and market area an iron welding workshop and a carpenters shop equiped with modern machinery.

Oldeani coffee plantations

Contrary to a widely held belief, the Oldeani coffee plantations, although largely German in origin, were not opened up in German times. They started about 1926, and led to the construction of the road from Mtu-wa-Mbu, and a subsequent branch road to Mbulu which was previously approached from Mbugwe, or from the South via Dabil.

Settlement and Projected Railways

Although the areas immediately around Kilimanjaro and Meru are fairly well settled, it is by no means closely settled and there are still areas unused and which may become available for alienation.

There are however, definite areas open to settlers in the "Ufiome Triangle" and Mbulu, and these areas are fast becoming settled. There is little doubt that at no distant future these districts will be served by a railway connecting Arusha with the Central Line.

Arusha, there is little doubt, will not remain the railhead for any great period. Government have in view a connection with the Central Line, but whether this projected line will run via Mbugwe, Kondoa Irangi and Dodoma or via Mbugwe, Singida and Manyoni, is at present not decided on. Gen. Hammond and the General Manager of the Tanganyika Railways recently discussed the projected line with local public bodies who were in favour of the latter route.

In either case the projected line will tap the rich "Ufiome Triangle" and the highlands west of the Rift Valley escarpment. Fifty to Sixty farms have been taken up in recent years in the sub-district of Mbulu, both above and below the escarpment.

There is also under consideration a branch from the Moshi-Arusha line to Engare Nairobi on the western slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro, and such line it is hoped, will later be joined with the Kenya and Uganda Railway near Kajiado, thus shortening the north and South route considerably and making direct communication with the Kenya capital.

Ngorongoro was of course well known to the Germans

Ngorongoro was of course well known to the Germans prior to World War I, and to British officials, farmers and hunters in the early twenties. But the land through which the road runs from the top of the rift to the Crater was then uninhabited. In the mid-twenties German nationals were permitted to return to their previous colony, then a Mandate, but the previously German farms had been sold by the Custodian of Enemy Property, so that the returning Germans had to find somewhere new to live. Who the originator of the idea was will never be known, but a number of these people settled on the lower slopes of Oldeani and started carving out coffee farms for themselves.

One effect of this move was to encourage the Iraqw people to move up from their overcrowded country to the south, first as labourers on the farms, and then as settlers in their own right on the neighbouring uninhabited land. A specially appointed Land Commissioner, Mr Bageshaw, recommended - and the recommendation was accepted - that all the land lying to the south of the boundary of the Northern Highlands Forest Reserve, already demarcated by the German Government, should with the exception of the alienated farms, be developed as an expansion area for the Iraqw tribe. There were however three major deterrents to settlement; firstly the tsetse fly which prevented the keeping of cattle, then the lack of water, and finally the fear of Masai raids from Ngorongoro. But the tribal authorities, with the aid and advice of British officers, organised extensive self-help schemes whereby the empty lands were settled, slowly at first, but with increased impetus in the period following World War II.

When I first travelled along that road in 1934 there was not a sign of habitation from Mto-wa-Mbu to Karatu, whilst the big triangle of superb land lying between the rift and the forest edge, called Mbulumbulu, was entirely empty. With Government aid and encouragement the Iraqw folk were just beginning to trickle north, when World War II broke out. This involved the removal of German settlers to camps, but at the same time increased the need for self-sufficiency. The Oldeani-Karatu-Mbulumbulu area had proved itself particularly suitable for the production of wheat, and attracted the attention of the Custodian of Enemy Property (who was running the vacated farms in the interests of the Government), the non-German farmers in the area, and a specially organised official Wheat Scheme. In addition to encouraging production within the boundaries of the existing farms, the Government of the day permitted all these agencies to clear and plough on the land allocated by the Bageshawe Commission to the Iraqw people, on short term lease, the agreement being that the land should be handed back at the end of the war.

In spite of the pleas of those in occupation to retain the land, the Government honoured its pledge to the Iraqw people and put the land at their disposal. The result was that one had a number of wheat growers, with know-how and machinery at their disposal, but no land and a large number of Iraqw folk with a large area of ready cleared wheat land awaiting cultivation, but lacking machinery and know-how. Common interests brought the two parties together, the wheat growers working the land for the Iraqw and sharing the profits.

At the top of the rift there is more emptiness

At the top [of the rift] there is more emptiness until one comes equally unexpectedly on the outlying wheat fields of the Oldeani settlement. The little group of European farms was originally German - most of the present farmers took over enemy property as a going concern after the latest war, and with prices high have been doing well ever since without as much effort as is normally required of the settler. Their wheat maize and barley looked fine, and on the high lip of the Ngorongoro Crater, which we only saw from a distance, they grow coffee. They are administered from Mbulu about thirty miles to the south, and it would seem that up to the present they are rather an anarchical group having achieved little or no sense of community. According to their overlord, the D.C. of Mbulu, they had little good to say of each other when he visited them; there wives were kept busy embellishing their houses with the rich proceeds of each years crop, also a clubhouse was in the process of being built, and the German school was being used by one form of the overcrowded Arusha European boarding-school.

The Iraq

With people like these, one can understand why the Northern Province with only four districts - Arusha, Masai, Mbulu and Moshi - possessed a far greater influence than its size and population would suggest.

Within its boundaries were some of the most advanced and backward people in the territory, ranging from the Chagga and the Meru to the Masai, Wa-arush, Iraq and Sandawe - the latter living entirely from hunting and collecting honey, nuts and berries. Their primitive clicking language was difficult to understand. They lived in the hilly Mbulu district to the south at Babati where a Masai-like pastoral people, the Barabaig, also dwelt.

The main tribe, the Iraq was a handsome race with such slender figures that it was difficult to distinguish between the males and females. They claimed to have trekked south from the Middle East many hundreds of years before and their language was unusual in having totally different stems for singular and plural, for example he (man), but rho (people).

p.s. my father was the one (engineer with WD & ID in Mbulu) who was contacted by the Maasai when Michael Grizmeck crashed.

I’ve included Julie as a bcc to this email, and will leave it to her to contact you.

If you find more memories together, please send them on for inclusion on the web site!

And any more information about your father will also be appreciated. How long was he at Mbulu. He must have been traveling up in the Gol mountains at the time of the crash (near Malambo), or else the Maasai came a long way to find him! I’m told that wreckage from the crash can still be found in the Malambo area.

Did you know that there is a Hollywood film being made about the Grizmeck’s at the moment?

Thank you David for email. I browsed through your site and forwarded some items to others who I know lived in Tanganyika/Tanzania. I seem to have become the contact for old boys of St Michael's school, Soni.

You might like to add this info to your website?

Dieter was at the same school and is trying to set up business in Tanzania. He may have provided you with his website? If you are looking for information about the German Colonial period, he knows where to get it.

The story of the plane crash from what my mother remembers. The Masaai came to my father's foreman who buried Michael and then came to tell my father who was in his office at Mbulu. My father then went to the crash site and presumably notified someone about it. Michael's body was reburied elsewhere.

My mother recalls the name Marsh from Arusha. Travelled out on the Warwick Castle in Feb 1958 and worked with WD & ID. Are you of that family?

We lived in Arusha and Mbulu for about 3 years and I spent a fair portion of that time without schooling and the little schooling I had was at Arusha.

I'm going out to Tanzania this January for a holiday -Dar, Arusha, Moshi, Karatu, Babati, Mbulu, Tanga, Pangani, Soni, Lushoto. Our Tanzania connection finished in 1983 when my father retired from there. He died 6 years ago in Scotland.

Flight Plan

Therefore, for the balloon flight, it was necessary to get well away from the lake before coming down. On the high ground to the west of the cliff wall there was a road, a frequently blocked one - but a road none the less, that led from Karatu southwards to Mbulu, From Mbulu there was a cross-road of sorts that led to the Great North Road, the north-south highway of Africa. Therefore our flight plan, so far as it could be predicted, was at least bounded by a rectangle of roads. It would plainly be advantageous if we landed near one of them. How, or where, or when was not in our control. Therefore, as we took off from Manyara, these crucial issues of the future were well at the back of our minds as we sailed, effortlessly, wonderfully, into the vast blue expanse of sky above our launching site.

Mbulu peasant jailed 30 years for possessing leopard skin

A peasant farmer from Oldeani - Mbulu has been sentenced to serve 30 years in prison after being found guilty of possessing a leopard skin against the law.

John Shauri (22) was arrested on the 6th of October last year in Mang’ola village of Mbulu with a Tsh.1 million worth of leopard skin, said to have been acquired illegally.

It was alleged in court that his arrest was a result of the reports given to wildlife officers at the Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority (NCAA) who together with the local police, later conducted an extensive search in the area.

Posing as potential customers ready to buy the skin which the accused had been trying to sell, the government officers made an appointment to meet with Mr. Shauri.

The accused, later arrived at the meeting place and after some bargaining he offered to sell them the leopard skin at Tsh.70,000 of which, the officers paid Tsh.40,000 promising to settle the remaining amount later.

It was after the transaction had taken place, that the accused was arrested and taken before the Anti Poaching Unit where his statement was recorded.

The prosecutor from the Anti Poaching Unit, Abubakar Mustapha asked the court to issue heavy penalty to the accused as cases of illegal possession of government trophies were becoming rampant.

The Resident Magistrate, Thomas Simba sentenced the accused, who had earlier pleaded not guilty, to serve 30 years in prison.

Leopardmannen

Do you also list non-English books?

I'm a writer, having written the book in Norwegian from Mbulu, where I lived for two years. Title: Leopardmannen (The Leopard Man) It has been translated into English, however not been published (yet?) I also edit a homepage on African Music with adress: http://www.leopardmannen.no I'm updating the page these days also to include links to theatre,literature and travel, so you will be linked up.

Hunters’ fire signals Hadzabe doom

Hadzabe bushmen residing within the Yaeda Chini escarpments of Mbulu district in Manyara region, have expressed their concern regarding the current increase of human activities in reserved areas.

Speaking in Arusha last week, representatives of the indigenous tribe said, of late, there has been an influx of hunters, poachers and farmers whose combined activities are slowly but surely destroying their eco-system.

Aided by an interpreter, the two Hadzabe spokesmen, Magandula Kizali and Maloba Masanga who were attending a special workshop on Wildlife Act review at the Arusha International Conference Centre (AICC) said such activities were threatening their survival.

According to the Hadzabe, groups of people have been invading their forest dwellings, armed with heavy guns with which they kill large numbers of miscellaneous species of animals a move which has caused most of these wildlife components to disappear either by death or migration.

Farming is also reported to be currently destroying the natural vegetation at Yaeda Chini and surrounding areas. Because human immigrants have been doing some large scale deforestation in their quest to convert the previously virgin land into large farming plots.

Hadzabe, who live on small wild animals, roots and wild fruits for food, find these human activities a sign of their extinction.

The Mbulu District Wildlife Officer (DWO), Allan Shani admitted that such activities indeed exist and that the Hadzabe bush men have been playing an important role in protecting both the wild animals and the environment in the past, but now things have gone out of control.

"Animals had been having a profitable symbiotic relationship with the bushmen", said Shani adding that the Hadzabe would protect the wildlife and benefit by eating little animals such as squirrels and monkeys.

"They never killed animals for fun or in large numbers and never bothered with big game", said the DWO of Mbulu explaining that, animals were much used to the Hadzabe and never attacked them.

Mbulu District Commissioner, GabrielSonga said people invasions of Yaeda Chini reserve areas have so far resulted into a myriad of court cases but many of which are later solved traditionally with agreements done out of court.

Human activities in both national parks and reserved areas are posing great danger to both the environment and wildlife throughout the northern zone of Tanzania according to recent studies.

The Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute (TAWIRI) in conjunction with the Mweka College of Wildlife are currently conducting an extensive research on the effect of human activities in reserved areas.

Hadzabe bushmen are currently found in Iramba districts of Singida, Mbulu in Manyara, Karatu in Arusha and Meatu district of Shinyanga.

A Horror Story

"We are in Karatu but more dead than alive. We've lost Trine through a snake-bite, but that was only a minor problem compared to what happened afterwards.

Two days ago we left the mission in Dongobash where the people had tried to cheat us (harmless, it happens everywhere). The whole day children followed us, screaming and bothering the horses. We had no bullets left, so there was nothing we could do. They even followed me into the bushes when I wanted to pee. When we complain about this, the adults always say, "But they only want to watch." I couldn't cope any more. At midday we reached the next mission, Tlawi. We'd been told that this mission had a fence, well, that's wrong again. Masses of children are with us when we reach it. I ask for someone who speaks English. The sister in charge comes - a fat, slow woman who doesn't understand very much. I tell her who we are and that we are looking for a quiet place to pitch our tent for one night.

I also ask her if she can help us to get rid of the children. "Yes," she says, but she doesn't do anything. Horst asks for water for the horses, and gets the same answer, the same reaction. I just can't stand it any more. We decided not to stay there, but to rest and then go on to Mbulu. There is a bigger mission there, maybe they have a fence. It's hot, I need a toilet and I want to be alone. A man comes - I find out later he's a priest. He doesn't introduce himself. He asks where we are from. I tell him I won't answer any more questions as long as people keep staring at me. "But they only...."

That's it! I jump up and yell at him, "I'm sick of this argument. I have been hearing it for more than two months now. I don't care what they want. I want to have my privacy. You think that because I'm white I have to accept everything. I have to give every drunk beggar a cigarette or some money. I have to smile when people follow me into the bushes because they have never seen a white arse. I have to accept that people charge me a higher price because of my colour. But I won't accept it any more. I'm sick of this terrible country."

He listens very calmly and then answers, "But you know, the people here have never seen...." He doesn't finish. I run to one of the staring women and lift her skirt. She laughs, but the priest is shocked. "She doesn't like it," I yell, "But I don't care. I only want to look - like your children. Do you understand now how I feel?"

Eventually I leave her alone. They probably think I'm completely insane now and it would be better not to provoke me any more. The children get chased away finally and the people from the mission go voluntarily. We have peace. After half an hour. we want to leave. The sister in charge comes and offers us lunch. "No, thank you we just want to get away from here."

No one follows us from the mission but down in the village it starts again. This time its adults, men mainly. They try to pull the horses' tails and chase them. Bucki is only shod on the front feet, Roland and Misty aren't shod at all any more. We are running out of shoes. The track is very stony and the horses can only cope on tiptoe. It hurts them.

Horst rides in front with Roland. Misty is packhorse and I follow on Bucki. I try to turn him around to chase the people away, but its hard to make him gallop. More and more people are joining meanwhile - now there are about 500. They come from all sides. The local Barbaic travel with long walking sticks. One of the men starts hitting Bucki with his stick. I try to defend him with the whip but it's not long enough. I can't hit the man. His stick is longer. Now he starts hitting me. I scream for Horst.

When he sees what happens he jumps off his horse and starts beating my attacker. That's the beginning of a war. Everything happens at the same time. 500 people start throwing stones at us. Some of them are as big as footballs. I'm hit by a few smaller ones Horst goes down. I scream in Swahili : "I'm a German journalist, I'm going to write about this." Two guys try to help us. They run in front of Horst and spread their arms to protect him and try to calm the people. The horses are just wonderful. During the whole time Roland and Misty were loose. When they were hit they just made a jump forward but didn't run away. Now Horst gets back on the horse and we go away.

When we have reached a distance of about 500 meters our two helpers follow us to ask questions. Not a good idea. The attackers start running again and follow us with war cries and stones. We must gallop. I'm afraid the luggage might fall but there is no alternative. These bastards keep following but the distance between us grows bigger. Then a curve in the road. They can't see us any more. We keep running but then the path goes steeply down between big rocks, and we have to slow down. After a little while the leader of our attackers comes around the corner. When he sees us he yells something over his shoulder and soon there are again more people. Most of them gave up but about 50 are still following with stones in their hands and the distance between us gets smaller and smaller.

Shortly before they reach us a pick-up comes from the other direction with a armed guy in uniform at the back. Our pursuers run away and I greet the policemen with overwhelming gratitude. I changed their mood without knowing it. It turns out they didn't come to rescue us but to arrest me because a had offended the woman in Tlawi by lifting her skirt. A second car comes with a German doctor. She had witnessed the stone attack and sent the police in the right direction. Now she comes to me and says in German "Oh you poor dear what happened to you?" Sympathy is so rare in Africa but it feels so good, I start crying again. She convinces the policemen to let us go to Mbulu mission first before further interrogation to let us unsaddle the horses. The police car escorts us.

At the mission are more Europeans - a German couple, Lukas and Carmen. Lukas is a water engineer. After the horses are taken care of we get tea. Finally the interrogation takes place in the living room of our German hosts. So many people have gathered outside the house that even the local policemen feel uneasy. Meanwhile the nun and the priest from Tlawi have arrived. After our papers are found in order and I've told my story, they and the leader of the police are still trying to find something against me. 3 other policemen seem to be sympathetic. Lukas has called the bishop's secretary who is senior to the nun and the priest from Tlawi, and with his help and the help of the Swahili-speaking Germans I remain free. What a day. Horst's leg hurts and I have a few minor bruises but besides that we are fine and our host invited us to a European dinner with real bread, cheese and sausages. We have a few more days to ride to Karatu. From there we can go by bus to Arusha and the first thing we buy will be a gas-gun or any other kind of weapon."

The Long Riders' Guild sent an urgent message to Esther and Horst, telling them to be even more on their guard in future, and suggesting that they either enlist the aid of the local authorities or get some native people to travel with them and guard them. After a few days' of worrying silence, we received the following reassuring message.

I am grossly irritated by misnomers

May I send you my opinion of the "disease" of misnomers in what was formerly the Mbulu District and now split into current Hanang’, Babati, Mbulu and Karatu Districts.

I will limit myself to the misnomers and corrupted names of places in that area.

I would like to start with the names of those districts i.e. Mbulu is an improper name for that District and the name of its headquarters. The proper name is supposed to be Imboru. The indigenous s are my witnesses though unfortunately they have accepted the name for too long a time.

The proper name Imboru was corrupted by the German colonizers who mispronounced it Mbulu and recorded it as such.

Another misnomer is ‘Hanang’, also name of the District. Unfortunately, mispronounced and misspelt. The proper name derived from the Mountain within the district, which is /Anang’w (with special cushitic guttural sound /A). The /Anang’w District headquarters should be Qatesh and not Katesh

Another example is a Ward in the Imboru District misrepresented as Daudi, while it should be called Dawdi. These are only a few examples. There are plenty of other misnomers in the area.

I have talked to friends about my irritation on these misnomers. They argue it was too late to go back to the original names.

I still feel these names should be written and pronounced in their original and proper nature because even big cities and countries have change their names to their originalities. Take examples of Peking which has gone to its indigenous origin of Beijing. Bombay has gone back to their Indian name of Mumbai. Bechuanaland is now Botswana.

If such big places changed their originals after going with misnomers for long time, why not our places in the districts I have mentioned?

I therefore appeal for full support in this little campaign of changing our identities to their indigenous original names.

Secondly, I appeal to both local and central governments to agree to the proposal to use the proper names as I am suggesting.

Names

Tribal names can be altered by pronunciations or written mistakes (Rangi or Langi, Longo or Kongo) and the proper grammatical use of the language, to non-Swahili speakers, can cause confusion:

the Ha tribe in one instance appears as Muha and several times as Baha,

and the Hehe tribe appears as Wabehe.

Some are an improbable mixture of mistakes such as the Yao tribe, which is also known as Achawa, Adjao, Adsawa, Adsoa, A)awa, Ayo, Hiao, Mudao, Mujano, Mujoa, Myao, Veiao, Wahaiao, Wiayau or Wayao etc.